Country review: Mozambique

Paula S. Afonso
Institute for Fisheries research, Mozambique
September 2004

INTRODUCTION

Mozambique is one of the world’s poorest countries, with 70 percent of the population living below the poverty line; about 80 percent of the 16 million people live in rural areas. Many areas are lightly populated, while two of the ten provinces - Nampula and Zambézia - contain 40 percent of the population. The country occupies 800 000 km² of the south-east coast of Africa; sharing boundaries with South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Tanzania.

Mozambique’s coastline measures approximately 2 770 km and is characterized by a wide diversity of habitats, including sandy beaches, coral reefs, estuary systems, bays, mangroves, and seagrass beds. The Mozambique Channel separates Mozambique from the island of Madagascar, which is 400 km wide at its narrowest point. Madagascar shields Mozambique from the open ocean, except in the extreme south and north where the coast is directly exposed to the Indian Ocean. The continental shelf averages 15 to 25 km in width, however it can be as narrow as 100 m (off Pemba in northern Mozambique) and 145 km (Sofala bank) (Sousa et al., 1997). The distribution and abundance of the living aquatic resources, as well as the fishing methods used to exploit them, are largely dependent on the physical characteristics of the coast.

The fisheries sector in Mozambique is an important source of animal protein and employment. Total marine products are estimated at between 100 000 to 120 000 tonnes per year and consumption is estimated at 7.5 kg per capita. The fisheries industries provide direct employment for around 90 000 people, excluding those involved in trading and processing.

POLICY FRAMEWORK

The fisheries legislation in Mozambique is characterized by three different periods:

• Prior to 1975: Colonial Period.

  - The first fisheries legislation in Mozambique (1965) related to the shallow water shrimp fishery.

  - In 1971, the Fisheries Maritime Legislation was first adopted and subsequently revised in 1974.

• From 1975 to 1990: Period of civil war in Mozambique.

  - During this period, little legislation was adopted regarding fisheries management.

• 1990- 2004: Current period - In 1990, the Fisheries Act was first adopted as Act n° 3/90. This law established the framework of fishing activities.

  - Also in 1990, the government of Mozambique approved the general regulation of fisheries law, which filled some gaps in the Fisheries Law, namely with regard to licensing and enforcing.

  - In 1996, the General Regulation of Maritime Fisheries was created and cancelled the previous revised regulation of 1971 (revised 1974). This regulation defined the typologies of fisheries by species, vessel size, and other specifications related to fisheries. It also specified size and season of authorized marine species and fishing requirements for the various fisheries.

  - The current Marine Fisheries Regulation (REPMAR) was adopted in December, 2003 and is based upon modern management concepts and established the use of co-management in fisheries management, the obligatory use of devices to protect endangered species (TEDs) and to reduce the bycatch, and, for first time, the possibility to create artificial reefs (Castiano, 2004).

  - During this period, a series of regulations were created namely: aquaculture, sport fishing, and many punctual resolutions to solve problems in fisheries management.

Generally, fisheries laws and maritime fisheries regulations are made at national level. Small resolutions could be for one regional area for example - Sofala Bank or Maputo bay. At the local level, there is no formal legislation. The principles of management at the local level are based upon traditional use of resources, such as the closed season for beach seines in Inhassoro. This principle is not legally adopted but is locally implemented through co-management initiatives.

LEGAL FRAMEWORK

The Fisheries sector is administered by the Ministry of Fisheries (MoF), created by the Government following general elections in 2000. Prior to this, Fisheries and Agriculture were housed under a single ministry.

The structure of the Ministry comprises three National Directorates, namely:

• National Directorate of Fisheries Administration (DNAP)

• National Directorate of Fisheries Economy (DNEP)

• National Directorate of Human Resources

At the same time the Ministry comprises four Central Departments, namely:

• Department of Fish Quality Control

• Department of Aquaculture

• Department of Finances

• Department of International Cooperation

The DNAP is the institution responsible for granting licenses and inspection of fishing activities. In addition, the DNAP must ensure that fisheries resource management measures are effectively enforced as well as the effective operation and management of fisheries-related public equipment and infrastructure.

The DNEP is mandated to undertake studies relating to national policies, lead the planning and budget process for the fisheries sector, and control implementation. This Directorate is also responsible for collecting statistics on the fisheries sector in Mozambique.

At the provincial level, Provincial Directorates of Fisheries represent the fisheries sectors. There are four provincial fisheries representations (Maputo, Inhambane, Sofala and Zambézia) answering directly to Provincial Government; while in other the Provincial Services of Fisheries falls under the Ministry of Agriculture.^[422]

There are three fisheries-related institutions: the National Fisheries Research Institute (IIP), the National Institute for the Development of Small- Scale Fisheries (IDPPE), and the Fisheries School.

The IIP provides advice to the Ministry regarding the state of stocks and their exploration. The IIP operates as a classical fisheries research institute with its focus on biological and environmental aspects of management. Their structure comprises central departments and seven provincial delegations in Beira, Quelimane, Inhambane, Quelimane, Angoche, Songo and Metangula. Two delegations are in lake Nyassa and Cabora bassa dam (Metangula and Songo). The IDPPE focus is on research and extension in small-scale fisheries.

The Maritime Administration, subordinate to the Ministry of Transport and Communication, is legally responsible for navigation and safety at sea. In addition, in some areas, the responsibility for artisanal fisheries licensing has been delegated to the Maritime Administration, mainly due to lack of human and financial resources.

National parks in Mozambique recently have begun to play a role in fisheries management. There are two marine parks, Bazaruto and Quirimbas, and the Ministry of Tourism is responsible for managing such national parks.

It is important to note that the relationship between the MoF and the Marine Administration is relatively good, but that there is a lack of coordination between the fisheries sector and tourism, mainly due to interesting conflicts involving these sectors.

STATUS OF THE FISHERIES

The fisheries sector in Mozambique is characterized by its economic diversity. Mozambique has three main types of fisheries: industrial fisheries, semi-industrial, and artisanal.

The industrial fisheries comprise 186 vessels, 90 of which are used in the tuna fisheries (DNAP, 2004) and are dominated by State joint-venture companies. The major products include shallow- and deep-water shrimp, lobster, fish and some tuna, most of which are for export markets. The principal importers of Mozambique fisheries products are Japan, EU and South Africa. The industrial fleets are principally based in the central and northern ports of Beira and Quelimane.

The semi-industrial fisheries comprise 97 vessels under 20 km in length (DNAP, 2004) whose ownership is more national. The semi-industrial fisheries vessels are mostly ice carriers, making short trips and not venturing far from the shore due to the characteristics of the vessels (i.e. limited capacity to store and process fish products). The main products are shallow water shrimp and demersal fish. Basically, shrimp is processed ashore (frozen); whereas, demersal fish are usually sold fresh on ice. The main ports are Beira and Maputo. Target markets include national markets and regional export markets, principally South Africa.

The total annual production of the industrial and semi-industrial sectors was estimated at 19 524 tonnes in 2003 (MIP, 2004); noting that shallow water shrimp contributed 39 percent of the total value of industrial fisheries. Other important products were tuna (38 percent), deep shrimp (seven percent) and fish (five percent) (Table 1) (MIP, 2004). As control on the tuna fisheries is limited, the Government considers the shallow-water shrimp, deep-water shrimp, and fish the most important resources captured in industrial fisheries.

The artisanal sector is widespread along the length of the coastline. The artisanal fleet number is estimated in 15 269 (IDPPE, 2004). These vessels provide employment for around 58 000 fishers plus a further 1 468 fishers without vessels operating from the shoreline (IDPPE, 2004). Artisanal fisheries are confined to near coastal areas and use a large diversity of fishing gear including beach seines, handlines, gillnets, traps, spears, and manual extraction.

The main products are fish and prawn, but in certain areas, it is possible to find high captures levels of crab, lobster, bivalves, sea cucumber, sea shells, squid, and sharks. Informal traders dominate the trade of these products. Processing is usually smoking or sun drying but a small portion is sold fresh, mainly in cities or villages. Prices vary considerably by site, and they may increase two to three times in the urban markets.

Until more recently, the total annual catch for the entire coastline was estimated based on less robust methods and the official catch values for this subsector were under-estimated, mainly due to the high dispersion of fishing monitoring centers along the coast, lack of human and financial resources, and a lack of a clear definition of responsibilities inside the fishing sector in Mozambique. Based on a rule of thumb, some authors estimated artisanal catches at 80 000 tonnes per year, with a related value of over US$ 50 million. Recently the IIP developed a new method based on probability-based survey techniques for estimating catch and effort of artisanal fisheries (Volstad et al., 2004, Baloi et al., 2004)). With this methodology and a cost-effective sample size of 19 percent, the annual production in 2003 for three main fisheries namely beach seine, gillnet and handline was estimated at 67 070 tonnes (Santana-Afonso, P. et al., 2004) (Table 2).

TABLE 1
Industrial and semi-industrial fisheries in Mozambique

* Tuna is not national production; the fishers are paying royalties taxes.

** Bycatch in general is fish from shallow and deep shrimp trawler.

Sources: Relatório do balanço geral de actividades- Conselho coordenador, 2004; MIP, 2004.

TABLE 2
Artisanal fisheries catches in 2003

Note: results are based on a probability-based survey in 19 percent of total fishing centers.

Source: Santana-Afonso et al., 2004.

Sports line-fishing, mainly by South African fishermen from beaches or ski boats, has increased remarkably since 1992. The Southern part of the country (Ponta de Outro To Inhassoro) is the most affected. There is little or no control over this type of activity and there are many reported cases of Southern African “sports” fishermen exporting large quantities of line and reef fish to South Africa (Massinga and Hatton, 1996).

MANAGEMENT ACTIVITY

The industrial and semi-industrial fisheries are managed on the basis of annual quotas, allocated among license holders. The quotas are set annually by the MoF on the basis of consultations with IIP and these quotas are then allocated by the DNAP. In the artisanal fisheries, management extends to the requirement of annual licenses; however, as the artisanal fisheries are operated generally without management, landings data from this sector are incomplete, and there is not enough control in this sector; some authors have considered the artisanal fisheries as “open-access” fisheries. As a result, most of the resources found in bays close to urban areas are heavily exploited.

At the central level, the Fisheries Management Commission (CAP), with representatives from all three sub-sectors as well as fisheries institutions, meets periodically to discuss management issues and serves as a limited forum for conflict resolution. Another forum, but more at the local level, is a series of local co-management committees; set up primarily through the initiative of the IDPPE but nowadays through community initiatives. These co-management committees are completely integrated into the formal fisheries management process and have appropriate regulations.

TABLE 3
Status of Industrial and Semi-industrial Fisheries in Mozambique

The principal and strongest fisheries management scheme is within the shallow-water shrimp fisheries, where various management measures have been put into place including closed seasons, fishing effort limitations (number of vessels), catch quotas, and mesh size regulations. However, although quotas and licensing are consistent, monitoring and enforcement are still major problems (Massinga and Hatton, 1996).

Officially, more than 75 percent of all fisheries in the country are management, but in practice, only a small proportion has effective management. The main causes of less effective management are related with limited resources (human and financial) and the extensive Mozambique coastline. An example of the effect of ineffective management is the common use of small mesh sizes in beach seines within the artisanal fisheries (which are not allowed and not fiscalized), with untargeted captures (all size classes and virtually every variety of fish).

In some ways, it is impossible to say exactly the amount of resources are effectively managed because Mozambique has the necessary legal instruments but may not have the ability to implement and enforce them in all fisheries. In areas where the sector is well represented, it is possible to say that the enforcement is made in more than 50 percent of the fisheries, but in remote areas effective enforcement is less than ten percent. However, it is clearly visible that the number of resources, fisheries and areas managed during the last ten years has increased significantly. On the one hand because of political stabilization and on the other hand due to the creation of a stand-alone ministry responsible for the fisheries sector in Mozambique.

Rigorous and regular stock assessments and annual total allowable catch (TAC) estimates are produced for the shallow water shrimp fishery. Estimates for other fisheries are based on historical information and through less rigorous methods. In general, industrial fisheries are regularly assessed but artisanal fisheries are not. Table 3 presents an overview of the status of industrial and semi-industrial fisheries in Mozambique.

For artisanal fisheries, the Master Plan of Fisheries of 1995 states that many resources are over-exploited, including sea cucumber, rock lobster, and fish in bays and estuaries. However, this statement was not substantiated in the text.

At one point, a dramatic step to close the shallow-water shrimp fisheries (industrial) was taken and supported by a series of regulations to manage the fisheries. However, these regulations were not totally effective because:

• The number of boats did not increase but the number of fishing hours increased;

• The number of boats did not increase but the efficiency of boats increased; and

• The sector did not have a full monitoring of the introduced regulations.

To summarize, the main impediments to more effective management in Mozambique are:

• Insufficient human and financial resources;

• Lack of priorities of the sector;

• Short-term economic priorities instead of rational use of the resources; and

• Great dispersion of fishing centers for artisanal fisheries.

COSTS AND REVENUES OF FISHERIES MANAGEMENT

Fisheries management costs in Mozambique have increased over time. Although actual costs estimates are not available, Table 4 presents some evidence that the costs and budget have increased.

TABLE 4
Significant changes in Mozambique Fisheries since 1990

IMPLEMENTATION OF GLOBAL FISHERIES MANDATES AND INITIATIVES

Mozambique is implementing the following measures to control illegal and uncontrolled fishing:

• Implementation of a national program of monitoring and control of fishing activities (MCS), in some cases with South Africa collaboration;

• Nation-wide implementation (2004) of a vessel monitoring system (VMS);

• Established of co-management regimes for artisanal fisheries as way to manage this activity;

• Legislations regarding the use of TEDs in industrial trawlers to prevent the accidental capture of endangered species like turtles;

• Mozambique’s intention to sign the UN Fish Stocks Agreement and to implement other FAO initiatives;

• Some projects and initiatives under the Jakarta mandate (reef fish swapping aggregation);

• Mozambique is not member of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC); and

• Regional projects (with some SADC countries) to identify fisheries types and an assessment of their overall role and status.

PARTICIPATION IN REGIONAL FISHERY BODIES

Mozambique is participating in some regional fisheries body to promote the sustainable use of fishing resources as, for example:

• Large Marine Ecosystems (LME);

• Southwest Indian Ocean Fishery Commission (SWIOFC);

• South Indian Ocean Fishing Agreement (SIOFA);

• Regional initiatives (SADC), in Systems of information (on fisheries);

• Project for Development and Management of Fisheries in the Southwest Indian Ocean (SWIOP).

At the moment, no legal mechanism exists to implement internationally adopted measures.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Mozambique is characterized by a high diversity of fisheries according to economic and social importance. Economically the shallow-water shrimp fishery is the most important fishery in the country, but socially the artisanal fisheries sub-sector is the most important source of food and employment for local communities.

The national administrative system for fisheries is new and during the past four years, the government has made progress in establishing infrastructure and has allocated human resources along the country. However, additional efforts are to be made, for example, in the coordination with other institutions that contribute to fisheries management in the country; namely with the Ministry of Tourism, responsible in part for fisheries management and enforcement.

The fisheries management is strongest in the industrial fisheries sector with laws and methods properly established to manage and monitor the fisheries. In the artisanal and recreational fisheries, management regimes are less developed, but the Government of Mozambique is trying to correct the situation, mainly in the artisanal fisheries, through monitoring, management, and development programmes.

Few fisheries are considered in danger in Mozambique. With regard to the shrimp fisheries, the caring capacity of the fishery was reached, but no fishing effort reduction strategy was implemented. However, efforts are being made to remedy this situation.

In terms of regulations, Mozambique has an appropriate system but does not have enough enforcement and capacity to control this regulation. Although the country has in its fisheries Plan of Action (1996) implemented some global initiatives such as VSM, MCS, and TEDs, implementation capacity remains questionable, principally in terms of specialized human resources.

Mozambique is active in regional fishery bodies in the region, but is not a member of IOTC; even in spite of the importance of its tuna resources. Other international and regional initiatives are still being put into place it is too early to evaluate their progress.

REFERENCES

Baloi, A.P. et al. 2004. Metodologia de Colheita e precessamento de Dados de Captura e Esforço de Pesca Artesanal em Moçambique.. Maputo. (in prep).

Castiano, M. 2004. O regime Juridico da Pescaria de Camarão em Moçambique. (internal report). Ministério das Pescas. Maputo.

DNAP. 2004. Balanço quinquenal (2000-2004), IV conselho coordenador do Ministério das Pescas. Nammacha. (internal report)

IDPPE. 2004. Censo Nacional da Pesca Artesanal Águas Maritimas (2002), IDPPE. Maputo. 76pp.

Massinga, A. & Hatton, J. 1996. Status of the Coastal Zone of Mozambique. Pp. 7-68, in Integrated Coastal zone Management in Mozambique. World Bank.

MIP. 2004. IV Concelho coordenador. Relatório Geral de Actividades. Direcção Nacional de Economia Pesqueira. Maputo (internal report).

Santana-Afonso, P. et al. 2004. Pesca Artesanal. IIP. Maputo.

Sousa, M.I., Marshall, N.T, & Smale, M.J. 1997. The shark trade in Mozambique. Pp. 67-79 in Marshall, N.T. and R. Barnett (eds), The Trade in Shark and Sharks Products in the Western Indian and Southeast Atlantic Oceans. TRAFFIC East/Southern Africa, Narirobi, Kenya.

Volstad, J-H et al. 2004. Probability-based Survey Techniques for monitoring catch and effort in the Coastal Small-Scale Fisheries in Mozambique (in prep).

APPENDIX TABLES

Current management of marine capture fisheries in Mozambique

Summary information for three largest fisheries (by volume) in Mozambique (2003)

n.a. = not available

* Value in 2002 U.S. Dollars.

** % values are based on totals for each category of fishery.

Use of fishery management tools within the three largest fisheries in Mozambique

Costs and funding sources of fisheries management within the three largest fisheries in Mozambique

Capacity management within the three largest fisheries in Mozambique

Capacity management within the three largest fisheries in Mozambique